Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the letter from Karen Bradley MP to Lord Morrow on 21 February 2014 (CTS Ref MS16/14), what assessment they have made of the actions taken by police after the victim of Keith and Caroline Baker was reported missing from her home in England in 2004.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Department does not hold any information on this case.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the actions taken by police after the victim of Keith and Caroline Baker was reported missing from her home in England in 2004, given that she was only found in 2012 in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Department does not hold any information on this case.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the pilot projects in five regions in England on the use of polygraph tests on sex offenders who are being managed in the community.
Answered by Lord Faulks
In April 2009 the National Offender Management Service commenced a pilot of mandatory polygraph examinations on sexual offenders in nine former Probation Trusts. Operating under legislation introduced in the Offender Management Act 2007, provision was made for all adult sexual offenders sentenced to 12 months or more for a sexual offence and released into the pilot areas to be required to comply with polygraph testing as one of their licence conditions. The pilot involved 332 offenders who were subject to the polygraph licence condition and 303 in a comparison group who were not.
The independent evaluation of the pilot concluded that sexual offenders subject to testing made more than twice the number of clinically significant disclosures than those in the comparison group who had not been subject to polygraph testing. In particular, the evaluation showed that polygraph testing increased the likelihood of preventative actions being taken by offender managers that would contribute to greater protection of the public from harm. The full report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-evaluation-of-the-mandatory-polygraph-pilot
In response to the positive outcomes of the pilot, provisions of the Offender Management Act 2007 were commenced in 2014 to impose the polygraph on all high risk sexual offenders released on licence. With effect from August 2014, all high risk sex offenders on licence are subject to polygraph tests conducted by specially trained staff in the National Probation Service.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many sex offenders are currently being managed in the community, broken down by police force in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Home Office does not collate figures on the number of sex offenders being managed in the community. However, registered sex offenders are managed through
Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and figures are contained in the annual MAPPA report, published by the Ministry of Justice on the Gov.uk website. The latest report covering the period from April 2013 to March 2014 is available at:
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, if the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are passed, any person created by the procedures provided for by that legislation will be followed-up in the way recommended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s Expert Panel on page 5 of their report,<i> Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception: update, 2013</i>.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 will not come into force until 29 October 2015. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will consider how best to apply a monitoring framework to clinics awarded a licence to carry out mitochondrial donation treatment, against which it would inspect.
The HFEA will announce its proposals for the regulation and monitoring of mitochondrial donation treatment cycles following the approval of regulations by Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what body will be responsible for overseeing clinical trials of pronuclear transfer and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The provision of treatment services involving the use of the Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer mitochondrial donation techniques will not be provided as a clinical trial.
Clinical trials are regulated by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, which implements the Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC. The Regulations do not cover treatment services.
The Regulations define a clinical trial as:
“clinical trial” means any investigation in human subjects, other than a non-interventional trial, intended—
(a) to discover or verify the clinical, pharmacological or other pharmacodynamic effects of one or more medicinal products,
(b) to identify any adverse reactions to one or more such products, or
(c) to study absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of one or more such products,
with the object of ascertaining the safety or efficacy of those products;”.
If the Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are approved by Parliament, clinics wishing to offer this service will need to seek prior approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Applications will be considered by the Authority on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether robust clinical trials are planned to take place for both pronuclear transfer and spindle-chromosomal complex transfer; and if not, why not.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The provision of treatment services involving the use of the Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer mitochondrial donation techniques will not be provided as a clinical trial.
Clinical trials are regulated by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004, which implements the Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC. The Regulations do not cover treatment services.
The Regulations define a clinical trial as:
“clinical trial” means any investigation in human subjects, other than a non-interventional trial, intended—
(a) to discover or verify the clinical, pharmacological or other pharmacodynamic effects of one or more medicinal products,
(b) to identify any adverse reactions to one or more such products, or
(c) to study absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of one or more such products,
with the object of ascertaining the safety or efficacy of those products;”.
If the Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are approved by Parliament, clinics wishing to offer this service will need to seek prior approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Applications will be considered by the Authority on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to legislation to ban all forms of anonymity online.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government believes anonymity online is an important protection for people living in oppressive regimes around the world. That said, anonymous posting should not be a tool to help those seeking to abuse others online. The Government expects all social media to make it easy for users to choose not to receive anonymous posts, to have simple mechanisms for reporting abuse and to take action promptly when abuse is reported.
Removing the ability to make anonymous postings will not prevent cyber bullying behaviour. Protecting children online is everyone’s responsibility. The position remains that where something is illegal offline it is also illegal online and there is already legislation which applies.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the establishment of cyber-abuse and internet trolling research, either independent of, or in concert with, existing government statistical research agencies, to generate statistical research and clarify issues, with a view to reducing and eliminating internet trolling activity.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Research is already being carried out into abusive behaviour online. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) established a Research Working Group in 2010 which has undertaken to collate research on all aspects of internet safety affecting children, including trolling. UKCCIS has also presented reports, such as “Good practice guidance for the providers of social networking and other user-interactive services” which looks at the issue of online bullying. This guidance is currently under review.
In addition, Ofcom is very active in researching online abuse. It publishes the “Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report” on an annual basis. This looks at how children deal with online dangers and how best to improve resilience to online dangers, such as trolling. Earlier this month, it published the “Report on Internet safety measures - Strategies of parental protection for children online” which examines the online safety measures available and how they are used by children.
At present, there are no plans for further statistical research into this behaviour between adults who are trolls. For those whose online postings are grossly offensive, obscene, indecent or false, it remains the case that what is illegal offline is illegal online. The House of Lords Communications Select Committee stated in their report into Social Media and Criminal Offences that the criminal law in this area, almost entirely enacted before the invention of social media, is generally appropriate for the prosecution of offences committed using social media.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions the Queen Elizabeth Cross and Scroll has been posthumously awarded to former soldiers whose death was not the result of being killed in action.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
The number of instances where the Elizabeth Cross and Memorial Scroll has been awarded to the next of kin of Armed Forces personnel, whose death was not the result of being killed in action, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.